Rape victim's sweat shirt found in van

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 18, 1996

PALO ALTO - A sweat shirt belonging to a victim of the serial rapist who plagued the lower Peninsula since August was found in a white van belonging to the suspect's aunt, according to court records.

The woman was raped Sept. 5. Her navy-blue sweat shirt with the words "You can't take it with you" was found in the 1977 GMC van abandoned by its driver after he crashed on a dead-end street in East Palo Alto Saturday after a high-speed chase, according to the documents.

The crash ended a police chase that hit speeds of 100 mph. The driver eluded a 10-hour manhunt, but police on Monday arrested Romel Demetrius Reid, and subsequently charged him with 17 felony counts in connection with the string of sexual assaults in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale.

The documents were filed Wednesday in Palo Alto Municipal Court at a bail hearing for Reid.

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The judge set bail of $10 million for the suspect, who was to be arraigned Thursday afternoon.

Other records filed with the court showed that investigators found Reid's organizer and personal identification, including his Social Security number, inside the van. The documents said police linked the van to at least one of the rapes but did not provide details.

The van is owned by Reid's aunt, Elnora Newkirk, the documents show. Newkirk was detained shortly Saturday, but police let her go.

The documents also say the rapist often brutalized his victims and broke one woman's shoulder.

But sometimes he would stop the sexual assault and apologize, the records show.

One Stanford graduate student said her attacker had given up when she told him she was pregnant.

Reid, a former night stock clerk at Wal-Mart, was arrested Monday at his girlfriend's apartment in Sunnyvale. &lt;